INDUSTRY OF COUNTIES. 
305 
Below we give a statement showing the amount of the staple 
products of the county, for the years 1850, 1857 and I860: 
Wheat. 
Corn. 
Oats. 
Potatoes. 
Butter. 
Lead. 
bushels. 
bushels. 
bushels. 
bushels. 
pounds. 
pounds. 
1850... 
... 03,283 
01,491 
175,851 
18,804 
67,295 
8,170,000 
1857... 
...262,547 
327,705 
320,112 
81,917 
273,381 
6,673,000 
18G0... 
...028,136 
749,964 
759,924 
190,778 
281,846 
Prior to 1850, the larger part of the population were en¬ 
gaged in mining. The mineral lands having been reserved 
from sale by the general government up to 1847, and low 
rents meanwhile being charged, and great privileges allowed 
by claimants, “prospecting” and digging for the ore were 
the rage, the pursuit of the masses, and farming mostly neg¬ 
lected or disdained. After the land sales in 1847, times 
changed. The purchasers of lands soon curbed indiscriminate 
“prospecting,” and this compelled hundreds of brave and 
hardy miners to seek other fields of employment. Many 
joined the army, in the Mexican war, and far off in the 
gorges of Buena Yista, and under the walls of Mexico, fell 
with their feet to the foe, or never returned; and others, by 
hundreds, in 1849, ’50, ’51 and ’52, sought richer mines and 
new openings for adventure among the distant mountains of 
California. Still later, the wonderful stories of gold in Aus¬ 
tralia, at Frazier River and Pike’s Peak, have reduced our 
mining population to one-half its former aggregate. Thus 
one Augustan age of mining in this county has passed away. 
Gallant boys of 1847 ! Hearts of gold, each true as the sun! 
hail, and forever farewell. 
Present mining in this county is, with few exceptions, car¬ 
ried on by companies. Surface digging and “ prospecting” 
have been replaced by deeper mining and the use of machin¬ 
ery. To get down to the mineral, “shafts” are sunk to various 
depths ; and below, whenever desired, horizontal “ drifts ” or 
channels are dug, sometimes to a distance of several hundred 
feet. The richest deposits now working, lie at a depth rang¬ 
ing from sixty to one hundred feet below the surface. The 
miner drains off the water by means of horse-power pumps or 
by levels. The ore, when raised, is hauled to a furnace and 
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